Bob Grotz: Roseman shares new vision on Eagles’ personnel decisions

Howie Roseman, the Eagles’ executive vice president of football operations, outlined the franchise’s plan on personnel decisions — while hinting at the job security of several players currently under contract.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE

That’s the essence of what executive vice president of football operations Roseman said Wednesday at the Eagles’ end-of-season presser at the NovaCare Complex.

Roseman patted himself on the back for orchestrating the trades elevating the Eagles to the second overall pick in the draft, where they selected quarterback Carson Wentz, who started all 16 games.

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Roseman took pride in extending the contract of Pro Bowl defensive tackle Fletcher Cox, their best player.

“When we look at our team going forward we’ve got a 24-year-old quarterback,” Roseman said. “We’ve got a 25-year-old highest-paid player. We’ve got to make sure we surround that talent with people who can be here and build with them.”

You’ll have to take the 41-year-old executive at his word. Eagles head coach Doug Pederson, who guided the team to a 7-9 record, and Joe Douglas, the player personnel president hired by Roseman to run the football side, weren’t around to corroborate the one-voice, one-team act.

Roseman didn’t exactly give Pederson a rousing vote of confidence. It was more of an “attaboy” for “facing adversity” in the form of Lane Johnson’s 10-game suspension and starting Wentz on just eight days notice.

Pederson had to think fast after Roseman traded Sam Bradford to the Vikings for their first-round draft pick.

“I’m just looking forward to him getting better,” Roseman said “and continuing to go grow like all of us in our jobs.”

Testosterone aside, Roseman’s infatuation with Douglas and his assistant, Andy Weidl, was among the most interesting topics addressed.

Douglas has a reputation for not paying too much for solid talent, whether in dollars or rounds of the draft.

While Roseman made it clear that Douglas reported to him, and personnel would be a collaborative process, he also said the Ozzie Newsome disciple would take a lead role in football decisions.

“He’s got a way of looking and evaluating players that is different than what we’ve done in the past and quite frankly, we needed that,” Roseman said. “He has full rein to set the draft board. He’s involved in every discussion we have about building this team and I think we’ll start seeing dividends. We saw some of them with our waiver cuts and I think we’ll continue to see dividends as we go through the offseason.”

Roseman wouldn’t elaborate on what different meant. He was more revealing speaking about the salary cap. He called the Eagles’ lack of space this year “a more challenging situation” and conceded there were hard decisions ahead that could make veterans vulnerable to pay cuts.

“As we look towards putting a plan in place, we’ve got to look at everyone on the team and figure out what the value is,” Roseman said. “Don’t want to talk about anyone specifically out of respect for those guys about contract situations but we’ve got to do whatever is in the best interests of this team going forward.”

Despite saying he wouldn’t name names, Roseman made an exception for offensive tackle Jason Peters, who’s due $10 million in 2017.

“We certainly want to have him back,” Roseman said.

Roseman also inadvertently put defensive tackle Bennie Logan, an unrestricted free agent in line for a monster contract, and defensive end Connor Barwin, at $7.75 million next year overpaid in his role, in the lesser category of “like to have everyone back.”

The wide receiver position everyone realizes is in need of upgrades may include DeSean Jackson, an unrestricted free agent.

Roseman kept clear of tampering while addressing the position.

“It seems like a long time ago we were leading the NFL in 20-plus yard plays, and I don’t have a DeLorean time machine to go back in time and get some of those guys back,” Roseman said. “We have a young group. We have a young room. They need to continue to grow and it’s one of the things, among others, that we need to look at.”

While that’s about it for the nuts and bolts, Roseman couldn’t help but pound his chest with respect to acquiring Wentz. He and his team researched quarterbacks in 2016 and beyond. He turned over every rock to trade over-paid cornerback Byron Maxwell and under-performing linebacker Kiko Alonso to the Dolphins to move up from the 13th overall pick to No. 8, positioning the Eagles to get to No. 2.

“It starts with the quarterback position,” Roseman said. “And I was very vocal internally about the need to have a long-term answer at that position, and felt like it was the most important thing we could possibly do.”

Amen. Though Roseman likes offensive line additions Isaac Seumalo and Hal Vaitai, they’re not exactly Cowboys material. Like it or not, Dallas is the NFC model. They’re the top seed in the NFC. It could take years to catch up to MVP candidate Zeke Elliott, Dak Prescott, Dez Bryant, Cole Beasley and maybe even Jason Witten.

“I think when you go back and look at 2008 when we were in the championship game and 2009 and 2010, 10-6 isn’t good enough to get home-field advantage, to compete for a championship,” Roseman said. “It’s a huge edge to have that bye. So we have to build the team with that in mind. I think some of the things that we’ve done over the past few years have been to get to 10-6. And that’s not good enough.”